What Affects the Success of Your Telegram Mini App?
According to FindMini.app, Telegram Mini Apps in games, AI, and Web3 are earning the most today. But does it mean just any game, AI agent, or Web3 app will succeed? Of course not.
Even what worked perfectly last summer won’t be on hype anymore in just a couple of months. Telegram users move on quickly, trends die too fast.
So, how to create a winning app? What are the key factors that lead to success? We asked experts, and now we know the answers – so you are welcome to learn them, too.
How to Measure the TMA Success?
We have already said ‘success’ four times, but how to understand you’ve really reached it? If we turn to the FindMini.app research again, the most profitable mini apps are those that demonstrate strong user retention and high session frequency.
Some more metrics include:
- Session interval – the time gaps between app openings are usually less than 24 hours for successful apps
- K-factor – a metric that shows the virality of your app
- Feature adoption – the percentage of people using core functions within 24 hours.
We described the most critical metrics for TMA and ways to track them in this article:
What Are The Most Successful Apps Right Now in 2025?
According to Roman Aliev, the Operations Manager at BDC Consulting, there are three types of apps that have all chance of succeeding today.
- Games. The core of success here is the engaging gameplay. Ideally, it should have social mechanics that will motivate users to share the project with friends. For example, the Dogs mini app suggested posting a Telegram story to check the TG account’s age. Once a user did it, the story viewers got curious and joined the app, too.
- Utility apps. This might include currency exchange, SIM-card purchasing, online booking for businesses, finance trackers, dating apps, trackers, sticker, or channels catalogues.
- Apps from popular brands. Once a brand has released an exciting viral product, their next mini app might gain much traction just because users want to see another nice job from the same team. However, that’s not a very popular story for TMA right now.
The main factors that affect the app’s success
FindMini.app data highlighted a pattern: success depends on virality, seamless onboarding, engaging gameplay (if that’s a game), and smart monetization. We covered the monetization part in our case studies:
- Turning traffic into $50 a day: A Telegram Mini App success story
- How to Create a Telegram Mini App and Earn $25,752: Case Study From TMA Owners
Factor 1: App Theme and Mechanics
When the TMA concept and its core gameplay are related to Web3, it has all the chances to succeed.
However, avoid promising long-term earnings: app owners might attract much bigger traffic volumes and gain nicer retention rates if they give quick dopamine hits to users instead.
These hits might include:
- Quick in-game progress, when users rapidly climb the level ladder;
- Instant rewards that users receive daily or weekly;
- Short-term payouts provide players with quick, tangible results.
As Roman puts it, there are plenty of similar apps, so giving users a quick dopamine will help them maintain their focus on exactly your TMA.
Factor 2: UI/UI
As Mike Tkal, Findmini.app founder, puts it, UI/UX is absolutely critical – today’s users expect instant interaction without complicated tutorial screens.
The simpler the path to your core action, the higher your conversion and retention rates will be.
So, what do you need to control?
- Simple, flawless onboarding. A user must understand every action you want them to do.
- Thoroughly considered user journey. Clear paths mean more purchases and better retention rates.
- Intuitive interface. It mustn’t be overloaded with plenty of options, tasks, and buttons.
A couple of examples: the app on the right has a main screen with tasks, buttons, and menu options scattered around the page. Where to click to begin the game? Such an approach confuses users and might lead to user churn.
The left one is totally opposite: the two buttons that a user can simply tap give a quick dopamine hit without the need to explore the interface for ages:
Factor 3: Community
Community around the TMA is crucial. One of the niche specifics is comparatively low retention rates, but you can significantly boost them by building a real, live community around your TMA. It can be a TMA’s Telegram channel, and also presence at various social media: X (Twitter), YouTube, Instagram, etc.
Here are some tips on how to create and maintain this community:
- Only useful content. Many TMA channels share their success metrics, and nothing else. Let’s be honest: users don’t care about them. A much better idea is to publish news, updates, or lifehacks for games – in other words, something that will be valuable for players. If you still want to share some insider information, choose confessing in failures over boasting: this creates a vibe of trust.
- Fake engagement. Yes, that’s exactly what we mean! Some think it’s unfair and consider it a bad practice. However, as Roman puts it, there’s nothing bad in fake accounts that will help to liven up the discussion: real users will join it too; they just don’t want to be the first. Besides, fake accounts can be a tool for calming down outraged players. For example, users who lost a contest might complain, while fake accounts will claim there’s nothing wrong.
- Activities. Quick and easy contests motivate users to leave messages in community chats. One example is «The Last Comment Challenge”. The point is that users comment on a post, and the one whose message will remain the final comment for at least 5 minutes gets some in-game boosters or Stars.
- Ambassadors. A good idea is to offer small compensation to the most active users for helping community managers. For example, they can be on duty for the support night shifts and feel proud to be a part of their favorite game’s team.
- Giveaways. Try them out to boost your retention rates and drive users to a stage where you can monetize them. One example is to ask players share screenshots of how they reached, say, level 10, and draw money prizes among all the participants.
Factor 4: Technical aspects
This one is pretty obvious, so we’ll just quote Mike from FindMini.app:
Fast loading speeds and reliable performance directly impact user retention. Telegram is a fast-paced content platform—users won’t wait around if the app lags or crashes.
Extra Aspects You Need to Know
Your app has all chances to become popular if you follow all the tips above. Here are a couple of extra lifehacks that can help you go viral, too.
- Continuous evolution. Regular updates and active community engagement are critical for retention. According to FindMini.app stats, the top-performing TMAs analyze user feedback, test new hypotheses, and implement novel mechanics.
- Dual-currency payments. On Telegram, you can accept either Stars or TON as your TMA payment method. A good idea is to enable both if your app’s nature allows it: most likely, your in-game purchase rates will be higher this way. If you need to choose only one, focusing on TON is better.
- Don’t copy and imitate. Trends decay too quickly in TMAs, so your analog of the leading app might most likely fail.
- Push notifications. Roman strongly recommends enabling push notifications for bots that launch your apps. Despite the chance of getting lost among tons of other Telegram notifications, they still nicely boost retention rates.
To Sum Up
The neat design, engaging or helpful nature of the app, its flawless work, and the live community behind it all are the key factors of your TMA success.
Got everything working smoothly? It’s high time you monetize your efforts at Monetag.
